The Gardening Thread

[LouderVol]

I am starting a vegetable garden, so I may be popping in here for ideas or help.

First time doing it myself, always helped my dad and never enjoyed it because we didn't grow much that I actually ate. and the garden we had was in bad soil, no good soil to be had.

a little outside Atlanta, so I hit clay after a couple inches of top soil. I have been composting a little bit of the yard clippings, fire pit charcoal, and kitchen scraps. but probably won't have enough to really make a difference at this point. but already on the next batch for next year.

really just want to plant stuff I like, see how it goes this year, and go from there. Maybe 8x16 little patch of garden. spot gets plenty of sun so that shouldn't be an issue.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, pepper of some type, cucumbers, maybe green beans. starting to look at what I can plant next to what, and may have to edit my selections down.

if I have a decent year I would definitely be willing to expand in the future. but didn't want too much on my first try.

 

[GVF]

I am starting a vegetable garden, so I may be popping in here for ideas or help.

First time doing it myself, always helped my dad and never enjoyed it because we didn't grow much that I actually ate. and the garden we had was in bad soil, no good soil to be had.

a little outside Atlanta, so I hit clay after a couple inches of top soil. I have been composting a little bit of the yard clippings, fire pit charcoal, and kitchen scraps. but probably won't have enough to really make a difference at this point. but already on the next batch for next year.

really just want to plant stuff I like, see how it goes this year, and go from there. Maybe 8x16 little patch of garden. spot gets plenty of sun so that shouldn't be an issue.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, pepper of some type, cucumbers, maybe green beans. starting to look at what I can plant next to what, and may have to edit my selections down.

if I have a decent year I would definitely be willing to expand in the future. but didn't want too much on my first try.

That's a long list for an 8x16, but @VolNExile is a good source for space gardening. She also adds pot gardening to get extra stuff in.

Also search companion gardening. You'll find a chart of what goes well close together and what to keep at opposite ends. I'm adding potatoes this year in grow bags, as well as carrots. Don't really get a deep enough till in the garden for those.

 

[GVF]

I am starting a vegetable garden, so I may be popping in here for ideas or help.

First time doing it myself, always helped my dad and never enjoyed it because we didn't grow much that I actually ate. and the garden we had was in bad soil, no good soil to be had.

a little outside Atlanta, so I hit clay after a couple inches of top soil. I have been composting a little bit of the yard clippings, fire pit charcoal, and kitchen scraps. but probably won't have enough to really make a difference at this point. but already on the next batch for next year.

really just want to plant stuff I like, see how it goes this year, and go from there. Maybe 8x16 little patch of garden. spot gets plenty of sun so that shouldn't be an issue.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, pepper of some type, cucumbers, maybe green beans. starting to look at what I can plant next to what, and may have to edit my selections down.

if I have a decent year I would definitely be willing to expand in the future. but didn't want too much on my first try.

You can do most of that list if you're just planting a couple of each to see what grows well for you and mostly planning for next year.

 

[LouderVol]

You can do most of that list if you're just planting a couple of each to see what grows well for you and mostly planning for next year.

yeah I was thinking at most 4 of each. I have read that some things, like corn, need a higher number to make sure the pollination works to get the best yields. but I don't think I have the bandwidth at the moment for that.

 

[GVF]

yeah I was thinking at most 4 of each. I have read that some things, like corn, need a higher number to make sure the pollination works to get the best yields. but I don't think I have the bandwidth at the moment for that.

Don’t let the word “garden” curb creativity. We have one poster whose veggie patch is his flower beds around the house.

 

[GVF]

This will also be my first year trying to grow my own meat. I’ve planted a ham hock and a beef rib. See how it goes.

 

[VolNExile]

That's a long list for an 8x16, but @VolNExile is a good source for space gardening. She also adds pot gardening to get extra stuff in.

Also search companion gardening. You'll find a chart of what goes well close together and what to keep at opposite ends. I'm adding potatoes this year in grow bags, as well as carrots. Don't really get a deep enough till in the garden for those.

Yeah, I thought about posting a suggestion to use raised beds (presumably framed in, not just big piles of soil), but then you have to get the soil for them, and it doesn't sound like @LouderVol has a ton available to him.

But one of the handy things about starting with raised beds is that after a season or three, if you like, you can remove the framing and spread the soil you've been using over the ground. So if you were interested in doing that, you could do some serious work forking or tilling up your native soil, even if down to just a couple of inches into the clay, mixing in soil amendments and working them in to improve the texture of the soil, build some 4x4 or whatever frames with paths in between, go find some quality topsoil AND mushroom compost and fill up the frames, and plant. The roots will help the native soil underneath loosen up and improve, get some mycorrhizal activity going down deep, let earthworms start doing their magic, and so forth.

Many people don't realize this, but clay soil is generally VERY fertile! It's just that it's so dense that the air pockets and water pockets that roots need don't exist. Amending clay with organic matter (especially the mushroom comport or similar) improves its tilth. It takes a few years, but this is kind of how nature creates soil, and it works. Per my latest soil test, I will not have to add any phosphorus or potassium to my garden beds for the rest of my days. Just the nitrogen from compost, etc., because nitrogen leaches out so quickly.

If you have a big space, you could start with four 4'x4' or 4'x6' beds this year, plant (for instance) tomatoes, peppers, beans, and cukes or other squash family vegs to start. Don't forget to add pollinator-attracting flowers and herbs! It's super-trendy now, so you should be able to find plenty - marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, calendulas, etc. Then next year (if you don't start drinking heavily this July and swearing off the whole mess by August ), add two or four new raised beds and try some new plants, and so on. If you want, start taking down the initial frames after their third year and re-use them elsewhere. This way you can slowly and naturally improve the underlying soil, learn what you like to grow and not, figure out what to do when 8 tomato plants all bear fruit within 3 weeks (them's a lot of mater sammiches), and expand your garden in general.

It's definitely possible to build a large instant garden, but it takes a lot of time, some serious back muscles and/or machinery, stubborn determination and discipline, and $$$$$. I like the idea of creeping up on it a bit and learning as you go, and not winding up looking out the window at a monstrous weed patch and loathing the whole notion.

Google [your county name} extension master gardeners to see if you have an active group locally. We often have videos, demonstration gardens, information booths, helplines, etc. I don't remember where you live, and our climate is probably pretty different from yours (although we're up to USDA zones 7A-7B ), but we have a pretty robust YouTube channel that might have some helpful info: https://www.youtube.com/@buncombecountymastergarden2508/videos.

Also, I really like this guy: Harvest to Table He's very knowledgeable, although there are some weird edits every now and then, and he has guidance for just about everything. He's in California - don't hold it against him - but he has planting guides for all over the country.

PS: re amending heavy clay soil: it might sound very logical (it did to me!!!) that mixing sand into clay soil would be a SUPER way to break it up and aerate it! lol, It isn't. It's actually sort of a recipe to make bricks.

I tried that when I lived in Knoxville, and boy, did I learn. You need to add a (formerly) living material - compost, pine fines, straw (you too can grow wheat in your backyard!), dead leaves, dried grass clippings, even shredded bark. Be aware that dry "browns" like dead leaves and bark need nitrogen to help them decompose, so either add a generous amount of blood meal (great source of nitrogen) to them when you mix them in, or realize that they will be competing to some degree with the plants above them for the N in the soli. It's not a disaster, but I did see noticeably slower growth from some tomato plants in soil that I had amended with hardwood mulch. Three years later, though, that soil is amazing.

 

[VolNExile]

yeah I was thinking at most 4 of each. I have read that some things, like corn, need a higher number to make sure the pollination works to get the best yields. but I don't think I have the bandwidth at the moment for that.

Corn is fun, but for best pollination, at least at the backyard level, it's planted in blocks rather than rows. I planted ornamental corn for the hell of it two years ago, sixteen plants in a four by four grid, and the pollination wasn't awful, just decent maybe. Backyard corn is wonderful once you can get a good-sized patch of soil for it, and it's very, VERY greedy in terms of wanting rich, fertile soil.

What I planted (it's mainly for eye candy, not for hot-butter-melting-off-the-cob eating): Glass Gem Flint Corn Seeds

And yes, it really did look like this!

 

[LouderVol]

thats for the tips Exile.

one of the things I am most pondering right now, as it is the next step I need to get done pronto, is building a full on cage for the garden. Going back to the child hood trauma of my dad's garden, I always loathed that the animals got to eat more of the produce than we did. I would always complain to my dad that all we were doing is feeding the squirrels, who would take two bites out of something and then drop it. I have seen deer, and oppusum in my back yard. as well as squirrels, chipmunks, and supposedly there are rats in the nearby woods, but they haven't been problem for me...yet.

My parents are coming down this weekend to help get the garden set up, and the cage is one of the things on the list I want to get at least going. I am thinking a full 6'6" tall border fence with a double layer of offset wire meshes. thinking about doing the same at the top too. Two issues, 1. the door will always be a weak point, especially with the type of construction I will be doing. 2. the squirrels, rats, and chipmunks can get into some absolutely TINY gaps, and I have no illusions to my ability to successfully keep them out even beyond the door.

which makes me wonder if its even worth building a fence/cage. The best option I could think of beyond a cage, would be to try and get an outdoor cat to adopt my yard, or maybe figure out a way to attract the owls I know are in the woods to camp out in my yard.

 

[GVF]

thats for the tips Exile.

one of the things I am most pondering right now, as it is the next step I need to get done pronto, is building a full on cage for the garden. Going back to the child hood trauma of my dad's garden, I always loathed that the animals got to eat more of the produce than we did. I would always complain to my dad that all we were doing is feeding the squirrels, who would take two bites out of something and then drop it. I have seen deer, and oppusum in my back yard. as well as squirrels, chipmunks, and supposedly there are rats in the nearby woods, but they haven't been problem for me...yet.

My parents are coming down this weekend to help get the garden set up, and the cage is one of the things on the list I want to get at least going. I am thinking a full 6'6" tall border fence with a double layer of offset wire meshes. thinking about doing the same at the top too. Two issues, 1. the door will always be a weak point, especially with the type of construction I will be doing. 2. the squirrels, rats, and chipmunks can get into some absolutely TINY gaps, and I have no illusions to my ability to successfully keep them out even beyond the door.

which makes me wonder if its even worth building a fence/cage. The best option I could think of beyond a cage, would be to try and get an outdoor cat to adopt my yard, or maybe figure out a way to attract the owls I know are in the woods to camp out in my yard.

Main animal problem I have with deer is eating my green bean leaves from ankle to shoulder at some point. But they keeping growing, and I get a good crop, and they reproduce the lost leaves. Not bad for a garden that will have 20 dear accross the road. My brother's garden is fenced in but I didn't bother. I did have my corn stripped one year by coons and squirrels, but a fence wouldn't have stopped that. Strangely I don't lose much to the critters.

Exie had some great suggestions. She has turned her backyard into a highly productive urban garden oasis in a moderate sized back yard and deckand has great ideas on utilizing space. And on the flowers and pollinators most definitely plant marigold and basil around hte tomatoes. You will have little insect problem if you do. And consider adding grow bags for things like potatoes and carrots. THey are super cheap on Amazon. And you can set them around the edge of the garden. If you have access to concrete blocks at little to no expense, consider making a raised bed out of them. Lay the block with the holes open upward and also fill with soil. Those can serve your herb and flower plantings around your veg that help keep pests away.

And when you have nothing else to do, you can scroll back over posts and pics here from the last couple seasons and the Zone garden thread and see some good stuff. Not sure why there are two garden threads. We're mostly the same group that goes back and forth between the two.

I had the good ole red clay at my house in GA as well. I know your quest. Like I said though, if you have good soil around the house beds that are underutilized, also consider using them to supplement you plantings. Because of this joint, My herbs have a home on my west wall beds, and a new onion patch there as well this year, and all 30+ onions have fresh tops sprouting.

I also made raised beds for strawberries by cutting the side walls out of old tires and lining them up on cardboard to keep the weeds out. And the cardboard will break down into the soil. You can plant whatever in them. THey make great potato beds. As the green gets tall enough, you add another tire, hold your tops up, and fill with a soil layer. Easy way to get a huge yield in a small space.

I think you're calling a good shot starting with a small, but decent garden size. Get that soil worked up this year and double it next year. I don't have the biggest garden in here, but it is fairly large, about 20 by 60 or so, and I always end up with unused areas. I also have neighbors with tractors, harrows, and tillers so I didn't put a lot of personal sweat into getting hte garden set up. And they till it for me each spring too. I also benefit from having had a Ag Scientist dad, and my step son is in the business as well.

 

[GVF]

Here's a link to a companion planting chart. If you really do a true companion plant of corn and green beans, better make sure you have a tall sturdy corn or the beans will pull them over. Trust me. Otherwise, plant bush beans amongst the corn or corn and pole beans side by side. And rotate sides each year. The corn will feed off the nitrogen the beans put in the soil.

The Basics of Companion Planting Garden Crops

Companion planting in the garden offers benefits. Use this companion planting chart for vegetables to tell you what crops to plant next to each other.

www.thespruce.com

 

[zhangliao04]

7 Causes of Yellow Spots on Pepper Leaves (With Treatment)

Yellow spots on the leaves of a vibrant pepper plant are the last thing you want to see in your garden. So whether growing a small ornamental pepper or hoping for a bumper crop of

gardenforindoor.com

Not sure if you found this link, but it looks simialr. Seems odd this is happening while still in seed cups, and likely indoors. From the pics, it looks like they are very saturated. Maybe at this stage cut the water down?? And wipe leaves with neem oil ??

I don’t think I found that link but hard to remember (I found a lot). And it’s great to see everything from under the sun be a cause for spots . Oh gardening. Anyway, that was one of my top 3 thoughts of what it could be. I’ve decided to only bottom water from here on out. I started spraying them with an organic fungicide and this past weekend I up-potted them so hopefully they clear up. So far I haven’t see it spread further and new leaves look okay. Now if I can figure out why my jalapeños and 1 poblano are having curling leaves. I doubt it’s too much light and I pray it’s not a virus.

 

[zhangliao04]

I am starting a vegetable garden, so I may be popping in here for ideas or help.

First time doing it myself, always helped my dad and never enjoyed it because we didn't grow much that I actually ate. and the garden we had was in bad soil, no good soil to be had.

a little outside Atlanta, so I hit clay after a couple inches of top soil. I have been composting a little bit of the yard clippings, fire pit charcoal, and kitchen scraps. but probably won't have enough to really make a difference at this point. but already on the next batch for next year.

really just want to plant stuff I like, see how it goes this year, and go from there. Maybe 8x16 little patch of garden. spot gets plenty of sun so that shouldn't be an issue.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, pepper of some type, cucumbers, maybe green beans. starting to look at what I can plant next to what, and may have to edit my selections down.

if I have a decent year I would definitely be willing to expand in the future. but didn't want too much on my first try.

Welcome to the gardening forum and good luck! Post in here and often. I’m currently growing a ton of different peppers to learn how to grow them AND produce some really nice, home-grown powders/spices. If you want something easy to start with you can try berries if you enjoy eating them.

 

[GVF]

I don’t think I found that link but hard to remember (I found a lot). And it’s great to see everything from under the sun be a cause for spots . Oh gardening. Anyway, that was one of my top 3 thoughts of what it could be. I’ve decided to only bottom water from here on out. I started spraying them with an organic fungicide and this past weekend I up-potted them so hopefully they clear up. So far I haven’t see it spread further and new leaves look okay. Now if I can figure out why my jalapeños and 1 poblano are having curling leaves. I doubt it’s too much light and I pray it’s not a virus.

It's perplexing that your getting this kind of leaf/virus/fungi problems indoors still in the starter cups. Most of the info in these links is geared toward and established palnting. I do bottom water my seed trays. It's just faster and easier. And don't have to check on every day. I also use those opaque sauce/dip cups for individual lids instead of a full humidity lid. That way I can uncover select cups as they break soil. If you want to see a ridiculous amount of peppers, plant 2 tobascos. Couldn't use them all. But the pepper sauce/vinegar was good mixed with jalpeno.

 

[GVF]

Yeah, I thought about posting a suggestion to use raised beds (presumably framed in, not just big piles of soil), but then you have to get the soil for them, and it doesn't sound like @LouderVol has a ton available to him.

But one of the handy things about starting with raised beds is that after a season or three, if you like, you can remove the framing and spread the soil you've been using over the ground. So if you were interested in doing that, you could do some serious work forking or tilling up your native soil, even if down to just a couple of inches into the clay, mixing in soil amendments and working them in to improve the texture of the soil, build some 4x4 or whatever frames with paths in between, go find some quality topsoil AND mushroom compost and fill up the frames, and plant. The roots will help the native soil underneath loosen up and improve, get some mycorrhizal activity going down deep, let earthworms start doing their magic, and so forth.

Many people don't realize this, but clay soil is generally VERY fertile! It's just that it's so dense that the air pockets and water pockets that roots need don't exist. Amending clay with organic matter (especially the mushroom comport or similar) improves its tilth. It takes a few years, but this is kind of how nature creates soil, and it works. Per my latest soil test, I will not have to add any phosphorus or potassium to my garden beds for the rest of my days. Just the nitrogen from compost, etc., because nitrogen leaches out so quickly.

If you have a big space, you could start with four 4'x4' or 4'x6' beds this year, plant (for instance) tomatoes, peppers, beans, and cukes or other squash family vegs to start. Don't forget to add pollinator-attracting flowers and herbs! It's super-trendy now, so you should be able to find plenty - marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, calendulas, etc. Then next year (if you don't start drinking heavily this July and swearing off the whole mess by August ), add two or four new raised beds and try some new plants, and so on. If you want, start taking down the initial frames after their third year and re-use them elsewhere. This way you can slowly and naturally improve the underlying soil, learn what you like to grow and not, figure out what to do when 8 tomato plants all bear fruit within 3 weeks (them's a lot of mater sammiches), and expand your garden in general.

It's definitely possible to build a large instant garden, but it takes a lot of time, some serious back muscles and/or machinery, stubborn determination and discipline, and $$$$$. I like the idea of creeping up on it a bit and learning as you go, and not winding up looking out the window at a monstrous weed patch and loathing the whole notion.

Google [your county name} extension master gardeners to see if you have an active group locally. We often have videos, demonstration gardens, information booths, helplines, etc. I don't remember where you live, and our climate is probably pretty different from yours (although we're up to USDA zones 7A-7B ), but we have a pretty robust YouTube channel that might have some helpful info: https://www.youtube.com/@buncombecountymastergarden2508/videos.

Also, I really like this guy: Harvest to Table He's very knowledgeable, although there are some weird edits every now and then, and he has guidance for just about everything. He's in California - don't hold it against him - but he has planting guides for all over the country.

PS: re amending heavy clay soil: it might sound very logical (it did to me!!!) that mixing sand into clay soil would be a SUPER way to break it up and aerate it! lol, It isn't. It's actually sort of a recipe to make bricks.

I tried that when I lived in Knoxville, and boy, did I learn. You need to add a (formerly) living material - compost, pine fines, straw (you too can grow wheat in your backyard!), dead leaves, dried grass clippings, even shredded bark. Be aware that dry "browns" like dead leaves and bark need nitrogen to help them decompose, so either add a generous amount of blood meal (great source of nitrogen) to them when you mix them in, or realize that they will be competing to some degree with the plants above them for the N in the soli. It's not a disaster, but I did see noticeably slower growth from some tomato plants in soil that I had amended with hardwood mulch. Three years later, though, that soil is amazing.

Come on Exie. Indeterminate Heirlooms solve the 3 week tomato harvest season and spreads it out over a couple months. I got 9 varieties this year, meaning 9 plants. My Brown Sugar didn't germinate and those were new seeds. I passed on starting dwarfs this year to try some other regulars.

The ones I can regurgitate off the top of my head are:
Peach
Santiago
Paul Robeson
Cherokee Purple
Brandywine OTV
Grappoli
Thunder Mountain
Korean Long
Sart Roloise

That might be all of them

Got my taters in the grow bags Sunday. Still need to get carrots and golden beets started. Picked up 2 Romanesco out of curiosity. If it'd dry up enough to get tilled, I'd get some early/cool season veggies down. Got some round carrots to plant, like a golf ball size or little bigger. Sweet, and pretty cool variety if you got shallow soil and can't generally do carrots. My other carrot is a mid length stubby brute that is sweeter than a ypical store carrot.

 

[TOUCHDOWN!!TN]

Main animal problem I have with deer is eating my green bean leaves from ankle to shoulder at some point. But they keeping growing, and I get a good crop, and they reproduce the lost leaves. Not bad for a garden that will have 20 dear accross the road. My brother's garden is fenced in but I didn't bother. I did have my corn stripped one year by coons and squirrels, but a fence wouldn't have stopped that. Strangely I don't lose much to the critters.

Exie had some great suggestions. She has turned her backyard into a highly productive urban garden oasis in a moderate sized back yard and deckand has great ideas on utilizing space. And on the flowers and pollinators most definitely plant marigold and basil around hte tomatoes. You will have little insect problem if you do. And consider adding grow bags for things like potatoes and carrots. THey are super cheap on Amazon. And you can set them around the edge of the garden. If you have access to concrete blocks at little to no expense, consider making a raised bed out of them. Lay the block with the holes open upward and also fill with soil. Those can serve your herb and flower plantings around your veg that help keep pests away.

And when you have nothing else to do, you can scroll back over posts and pics here from the last couple seasons and the Zone garden thread and see some good stuff. Not sure why there are two garden threads. We're mostly the same group that goes back and forth between the two.

I had the good ole red clay at my house in GA as well. I know your quest. Like I said though, if you have good soil around the house beds that are underutilized, also consider using them to supplement you plantings. Because of this joint, My herbs have a home on my west wall beds, and a new onion patch there as well this year, and all 30+ onions have fresh tops sprouting.

I also made raised beds for strawberries by cutting the side walls out of old tires and lining them up on cardboard to keep the weeds out. And the cardboard will break down into the soil. You can plant whatever in them. THey make great potato beds. As the green gets tall enough, you add another tire, hold your tops up, and fill with a soil layer. Easy way to get a huge yield in a small space.

I think you're calling a good shot starting with a small, but decent garden size. Get that soil worked up this year and double it next year. I don't have the biggest garden in here, but it is fairly large, about 20 by 60 or so, and I always end up with unused areas. I also have neighbors with tractors, harrows, and tillers so I didn't put a lot of personal sweat into getting hte garden set up. And they till it for me each spring too. I also benefit from having had a Ag Scientist dad, and my step son is in the business as well.

Animals…get a dog, most animal problems solved, except at night.
Moth balls around the perimeter, worked for me
Do you dig it ? Lol

 

[VolNExile]

Come on Exie. Indeterminate Heirlooms solve the 3 week tomato harvest season and spreads it out over a couple months.

Oh, I know! I was exaggerating for effect, lol. Apologies if I misled anyone!

 

[GVF]

Animals…get a dog, most animal problems solved, except at night.
Moth balls around the perimeter, worked for me
Do you dig it ? Lol

Not the dogs we had. My wife ruined their useability. She even turned my Catahoula into a lap dog. All our dogs have passed. Got 3 semi-feral cats on the ground, and one stuck in a tree on day 3 now. One finally did leave a mole on the deck.

 

[zhangliao04]

It's perplexing that you’re getting this kind of leaf/virus/fungi problems indoors still in the starter cups. Most of the info in these links is geared toward and established palnting. I do bottom water my seed trays. It's just faster and easier. And don't have to check on every day. I also use those opaque sauce/dip cups for individual lids instead of a full humidity lid. That way I can uncover select cups as they break soil. If you want to see a ridiculous amount of peppers, plant 2 tobascos. Couldn't use them all. But the pepper sauce/vinegar was good mixed with jalpeno.

You’re telling me. I did read that some viruses can be brought over from the parent into the seeds that are then sold to the buyer. Probably my issue. But who knows. The nice thing is that I can replace them with ones bought at the store if they don’t make it.

Thats a good idea with the plastic sauce cups. I’ll have to remember that. I did buy a kit from Bootstrap Farmer so I already have a couple of humidity domes.

 

[zhangliao04]

Come on Exie. Indeterminate Heirlooms solve the 3 week tomato harvest season and spreads it out over a couple months. I got 9 varieties this year, meaning 9 plants. My Brown Sugar didn't germinate and those were new seeds. I passed on starting dwarfs this year to try some other regulars.

The ones I can regurgitate off the top of my head are:
Peach
Santiago
Paul Robeson
Cherokee Purple
Brandywine OTV
Grappoli
Thunder Mountain
Korean Long
Sart Roloise

That might be all of them

Got my taters in the grow bags Sunday. Still need to get carrots and golden beets started. Picked up 2 Romanesco out of curiosity. If it'd dry up enough to get tilled, I'd get some early/cool season veggies down. Got some round carrots to plant, like a golf ball size or little bigger. Sweet, and pretty cool variety if you got shallow soil and can't generally do carrots. My other carrot is a mid length stubby brute that is sweeter than a ypical store carrot.

What size of grow bags are you using for the potatoes? I thought about doing them last year and then again this year. But I keep pushing it out another year.

 

[SlipKidVol]

I did florida weave last year. It was ok but I think better for determinant. This year using tomahooks.will post pictures

 

[Go aeiou]

Mushroom “poop” is da shizzle.

Edit: I amended my garden soil with mushroom poop at two different residences. At my current home, I make my own compost and amend with it each spring.

leaves?

 

[Go aeiou]

Oh, I know! I was exaggerating for effect, lol. Apologies if I misled anyone!

It's what gardeners do.

 

[Tin Man]

leaves?

Some leaves (mostly dogwood, now that my trees are free of fungus) mixed with “green” vegetable scraps and lawn trimmings (when there’s no seeds), eggshells ‘n’ such. If it’s not “cooking” into compost quickly enough, I may add a wee sprinkle of 10-10-10 as an accelerant. I compost in a large trash can with holes drilled into it for aeration and drainage. I occasionally add a little water to keep it moist, being careful not to overwater, lest it start to rot rather than compost. I turn the contents regularly with a pitchfork. It’s in a sunny spot to promote “cooking,” and it does get bugs and worms in it. A ~full can will break down into ~1/3 to 1/2 a can of ready compost by the time I amend my garden. I rake out the uncomposted bits and put these back into the can as starter for the next batch.

 

[Tin Man]

Speaking of tree leaves, even the hickories are greening with new leaves. The deciduous trees around me are resplendent with new green. My oaks are still full of “ganglia,” despite the massive amount of brown fall littering my yard and driveway. Spring pollen counts are in the thousands, here on the Southern Piedmont.